The Take Care Job
by Ultrawoman
Summary: One-Shot. Eliot always knows when Parker tries to follow him home and he doesn't mind much, but tonight something is different. She is never quite this obvious, so something must be wrong... EliotParker friendshippy fluff.


**A/N: This is just shameless fluffy E/P. Since it's my Birthday tomorrow, I'm going to call it my present to myself, but I also want to share it with all of you :-)**

_**(Disclaimer: Characters from Leverage belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and other important people that aren't me.)**_

The Take Care Job

It wasn't like he was the best person for her to try and sneak up on. Eliot Spencer was about as spacially aware as any man could be, and given his attitude and reputation most people would never try to creep up behind him on any day. Even Parker, who had startled Eliot on more than one occasion with her mad skills at getting into a room without a sound, could never follow him for long without him noticing. She had tried once or twice and he'd caught her with ease, and it had been months now since he'd felt her somewhere behind him on his walk home from Nate's place to his own.

Tonight was different. The first thing that struck Eliot was that someone was following him from the store, on a day when he hadn't even seen the team. Sure, Parker could have just run across him in the street and decided to give chase, but that was a hell of a long shot. Secondly, the little thief was getting very sloppy or something because she was even less stealthy than usual. It was because of this that Eliot didn't speak up the moment he noticed she was tailing him again. Instead he just hefted his bag of groceries higher in his arms and kept on walking.

Behind him, he felt the presence of Parker follow close behind. He heard her footsteps, he even heard her breathing as he entered a back alley to take the short-cut home. It made him frown because it was so unusual, made him almost stop walking but he thought better of it. Letting Parker know that he'd realised she was there meant she might go away, and right now he didn't want that. If there was a problem, if she needed help and this was her odd-ball way of asking, the last thing Eliot wanted was for her to bolt and be alone and in pain or something.

"_Aatchoo!"_

The sound of a sneeze caught the hitter off-guard, but a smile came to his lips as he realised even Parker would know by now that her cover was blown.

"Gesundheit" he said as he came to a halt at the mouth of the alley, not turning back, just waiting for the thief to show herself.

It took just a few seconds, a muttering of curses, and then she dropped down in front of him. Dropped was the word he realised almost too late as Parker landed on decidedly unsteady feet and without the cat-like grace he was used to from her. Eliot reached out his free arm to help her but immediately she flinched away.

"I'm fine" she said, though her voice wasn't quite clear and even in the dim light Eliot could see her eyes were red and her skin even more pale than usual.

"Really?" he checked, trying to see her face even when she turned away, frowning some when she wouldn't meet his eyes and looked like she was going to run, "Parker, I _always_ know when you're tailing me" he reminded her, "but not like this, not so obvious, and I haven't even seen you today, we haven't been near Nate's, so why..."

It was as far as he got with the question as she moved as if to go and stumbled some as she did so. Eliot let the bag of groceries drop to the ground as he went to her, catching Parker effortlessly as she pitched backwards against his chest.

"Woah" she swallowed hard as the world spun out of focus, "I don't... Eliot, I don't feel great" she admitted, something he knew was a big deal for her in and of itself.

This had to be why she was following him, because she needed help and was as crappy as he was at asking for it. Why she had chosen him over anybody else was still a mystery, but Eliot wasn't too worried about that right now.

"Geez, Parker, you're burning up" he told her as his hand touched her arm, then moved up to check her forehead.

"Is that bad?" she asked shakily.

Eliot rolled his eyes at the question, and at the fact he honestly couldn't tell if she was serious or not. What he did know was that Parker was sick and in her own special way seemed to be seeking out help. Eliot also knew that getting one wobbly little thief and a large bag of groceries over to his apartment without incident was going to be interesting.

"Okay" he said to himself, "I know you're not feeling great darlin', but you gotta help me out here. I can carry you and the food, but you gotta hold on tight for me, okay?" he told Parker as she turned around to face him.

She was looking at him but not exactly seeing, he suspected. Clearly her fever was causing the wooziness, the shaking, and all. He needed to get her out of here if he was going to help her and was thankfully both strong and agile enough to pull of the necessary manoeuvre that would probably look like a circus trick to anyone that saw.

Thankfully, nobody did see, as Eliot went from the alley around back of his apartment building, with Parker holding onto him like a koala bear, one arm keeping her steady whilst the other kept a grip on the large paper bag of groceries he would definitely need if he was going to properly take care of her.

Eliot manoeuvred them in through the door, using a foot, one spare finger, and his head in an odd combo to make it through without dropping either half of his cargo. Thankfully an empty elevator saved him having to run several flights of stairs with his relatively light but unwieldy loads - he was fit and strong, but there were limits!

Outside the door to his apartment, Eliot was forced to put Parker down, carefully leaning her back against the wall.

"How you doin' there, babe?" he asked her, as he hunted for his keys to let them inside.

"Cold" she told him, wrapping her arms around herself and plainly shivering despite the fact it was pretty warm even this late in the evening, and Eliot knew for a fact she was burning up.

"Well, we'll do something about that soon" he promised, as he opened the door and ushered her inside.

Parker didn't actually move, even as Eliot continued to gesture for her to go in already. She just stood staring, first at him, then the open door, then the stairs that meant escape. She was going to bolt and he knew it, though Eliot wasn't totally clear as to why or how she would manage it. After all, she was the one who sought him out tonight. His first instinct was to grab her and get her inside, but if she was already thinking of running, that was just going to spook the girl.

"Parker, c'mon" he said gently, "You trust me, right?"

There was a moment's pause when he seriously wondered what her answer might be, then slowly she nodded, not saying another word as she rolled off the wall and into the apartment.

Eliot cast his eyes heavenward and gave a silent 'thanks'. Tonight was weird in and of itself but it would be a whole lot messier if he let a sick and wobbly Parker go on the run. She needed taking care of, that was more true now than ever before, though to Eliot's mind, Parker always needed someone to look out for her. It was something she never had as a kid or even as an adult, he supposed, until she met the team. What puzzled Eliot was why tonight she had decided to actually ask for help, in a sense, and why it was him she'd chosen to turn to.

"Comfy" she sighed as she curled into the couch cushions like a cat, though her arms were still wrapped firmly around her body from the cold that only she was feeling.

Taking the blanket from the back of the couch, Eliot threw it over the thief's shivering form, then moved to the kitchen to deal with his groceries. In dropping the bag before to catch Parker, he'd cracked a few eggs and probably bruised some fruit, but nothing catastrophic. It wasn't long before he had things in their usual tidy state and was headed back to the living room with a glass or orange juice in one hand and some pills in the other. He put them on the coffee table as he came to crouch down at Parker's level where she lay amongst the cushions still.

"Parker" he prompted, tapping her gently on the arm, "Hey, how long you been feeling like this?" he asked.

"Just today" she told him, peering through half-open eyes, "I'll probably be fine again tomorrow" she sighed, the shivering making her teeth chatter despite the fact she felt as hot as Texas in Summer the moment Eliot's skin met hers, fingers pushing her hair carefully off her face.

"You just feeling cold and dizzy or anything else I should know about?" he asked, just a little worried she was suffering with something much more serious than it seemed.

"My nose feels weird, and my throat is so dry" she complained, swallowing hard and wincing as she did so, "I'm just... fuzzy" she shook her head a little, as if to clear the fuzz that was bothering her

Eliot noted with some alarm that at some point her eyes had filled with tears which now rolled down her cheeks as she shook her head. She looked scared, maybe because this had never happened to her before, at least not for so long that she really recalled it. Loss of control was what she probably feared most, as they all did, as most human beings do. It seemed odd that for once Parker was part of the rule and not the crazy expectation to it, but that really wasn't important right now.

"Hey, it's okay" he promised, putting a careful hand to her cheek to wipe way her tears, but Parker wriggled away. She sat upright on the couch, the blanket falling over her legs as she scrubbed at her face.

"I thought you'd help, make me better" she sniffed, "You're never sick, and I don't wanna be sick, I don't... I can't focus" she said, her monotone giving way to a kind of desperation as she turned to glance at Eliot where he had pulled himself up to sit beside her.

"Parker, you just have a head cold, okay?" he explained, mindful of touching her again, even in comfort, for fear of her reaction right now, "I know it feels bad and you feel out of control and all, but I _can_ help" he promised her, "I wanna help you, but you're gonna have to trust me"

Her eyes snapped to meet his then, and though she didn't exactly look comfortable about it, she agreed.

"I do" she told him softly, sniffing hard, "I know you wouldn't hurt me. You always protect me, but... I never had that before, and I _never_ get sick" she explained, "Eliot, I don't like what I'm feeling"

He wondered then if it was just the flu-type symptoms getting her down, or if maybe she almost felt guilty that it took so much for her to show him even the tiniest amount of trust. If he had to guess, Eliot would go with both.

"Okay, well, I know you don't like drugs, but I swear you'll feel a lot less fuzzier with these than without" he told her then, moving to hand her the pills and juice from the table, "They'll help with your temperature, take some of those aches and pains down to a dull roar, okay?"

Like a good girl, Parker dutifully nodded and swallowed down her medicine with about half the glass of orange juice. A moment later she was opening her mouth wide in Eliot's direction to prove the pills were gone.

"That's a good girl" he rewarded her with a smile, as he put her glass back on the table for her, then got up off the couch, encouraging her to get comfortable again, "Now, how about some soup?" he offered, as he tucked her in.

"Hmm" the sound from Parker's lips seemed positive as her head sunk into the cushions and her eyelids drooped to a close.

It was strange to think she could be so wacky and insane sometimes, that Parker could say and do such wildly inappropriate things, when right now, all Eliot could think was how beautifully angelic she looked, lying there on his couch, wrapped up in a blanket, with her golden hair splayed out around her face like a halo.

Suddenly, one blue eye popped open, almost managing to startle the hitter.

"You're staring" Parker pointed out, clearly unimpressed and shockingly aware for a sick and sleepy person with her eyes closed.

"Sorry" Eliot muttered as he headed for the kitchen as had been his original plan.

This evening was turning out to be pretty surreal all around, though gained some normality when he started to cook. Making soup from scratch took a while, which was why the hitter was happy to recall that he had a batch still in the freezer that would just need boiling up.

Within a half hour he was sat back in the armchair of his living room, watching as Parker sat up a little on the couch sipping a mug of steaming soup that eased her throat some. She caught him staring at her a couple of times, though Eliot hadn't meant to do it, and the look in her eyes soon had him concentrating on his own food again in a second.

They continued on in oddly comfortable silence until they were both done, and then Parker was quick to put her empty mug down on the table so she could get comfy again. Still, she didn't lie down, and Eliot guessed that doing so was just making her head feel worse, blocking up her nose so she couldn't breathe properly.

"I hate this" she groaned, "I'm not good at being sick. I feel awful" she complained so much that Eliot almost laughed.

"It's just a cold, Parker, you're not dying" he told her with a smile he couldn't help because she was just so cute right now, "Still, you're probably gonna feel out of it for a few days, especially since you don't exactly take care of yourself food-wise" he scolded her gently, "You know there are four food groups, right?" he said, showing her four fingers to illustrate his point clearly, "_Four_, and dry cereal and fortune cookies ain't one of 'em"

"I eat other stuff" she huffed, as much indigence as she could manage in her present state, "And I pop a couple of vitamin pills sometimes..."

Immediately Parker had said it she knew it was the wrong thing to tell Eliot. He was all for healthy eating and exercise. The latter she got but she wasn't exactly one for fruits and veggies, sticking to fast food, anything convenient, and usually sweet stuff. Apparently telling Eliot that kind of thing brought on his disapproving fatherly look that never failed to shame her.

"Yeah, and it's clearly working for you" he rolled his eyes, "This state you got yourself in is your body telling you to take better care of it"

Parker knew he was right, but she wasn't going to say it. There were times these two were just both as stubborn as each other, and today was no exception. He was determined she needed to treat her body better, and she was just as adamant she was not going to admit to it.

"I don't have to take care of me anymore" she sighed, letting her eyes fall shut, partly because she felt so tired and partly because she couldn't look at him whilst he said this, "I have you for that now" she told him almost too quietly to hear.

Eliot couldn't help but smile at that. She was right, of course, and using his own words against him too. More than once he had reminded her she had the team to lean on if she needed it these days, and himself in particular. He stated his profession as protector and guardian, the one who took care of everybody else in any way they needed it, from beating heads of enemies to patching up wounds on his team mates when the worst happened. That didn't mean Parker didn't need to learn to eat better and rest properly, but he was here for her and he would take care of her, always.

"That's why you followed me home" he said, not a question but more a statement of realisation, "You knew you were sick and you wanted somebody to take care of you, but hey, you're Parker, you couldn't just ask..." he said, apparently to himself as it would appear she was now asleep, her breathing evening out and a snuffly kind of a snoring sound vibrating out of her.

Shaking his head, Eliot got up from his seat and moved over to the couch to better tuck Parker in with the blanket. Pushing her hair gently off her face, he smiled.

"You rest up, darlin'" he told her in nothing but a whisper, "I'm here to take care of you. As long as you need" he promised, planting a kiss on her forehead.

Parker already knew she was safe here, and he was right, it was why she'd followed him tonight, why she would always choose Eliot when she needed help, because despite his reputation of violence and pain, he took care of people, of her, better than anyone else she ever met in her life.

The End


End file.
